The Way Life Is
by xAnimeLoverx3
Summary: Noriko Kādoyūzā is one of the first people to not view Naruto Uzumaki as a monster. When her class in the Academy has an uneven amount of students, she is placed as the forth member of Team Seven. She has no idea of the adventure her team will bring... I hope the story is better than it sounds.


_**I've been re-watching "Naruto" with my sister. It's bringing back memories, so I decided to make a fanfic of it. Can't just make DBZ fanfics when my username is "x**_**Anime**_**Loverx3", right? I now present my new story, which I hope you guys like. :)**_

"Push, Nori, push!" yelled a woman who seemed a bit older than the woman giving birth named Nori. Nori let out a painful scream. She continued to pant, why won't her precious baby girl get out already?

"I see a head! Keep it up and Noriko will be born!" Nori pushed and pushed. Suddenly, she heard crying. Her eyes softened. "Noriko…"

After a few minutes, Nori Kādoyūzā was holding her newborn daughter, who was still crying softly. "I won't let anything happen to you, Noriko." She looked up at the woman who helped her give birth and smiled. "Thank you, Takako."

"Anything for you, little cousin," She smiled back. She kneeled down to the bed's level with a toddler in her hands. "See, Taro? This is your new third cousin, or just cousin for short." Taro slightly turned his little head and looked at the newborn. Noriko looked right back.

"I think she likes him." Nori noticed her daughter softly giggle. "Do you like her, Taro?" Takako asked her son. She could've sworn she just his head nod.

"Cousin, I think it's time to… you know…" Takako said hesitantly, looking at her watch. Takako saw her cousin's face slowly saddened, handing her Noriko. "Stay here with auntie, Taro." She gave her son to her second cousin, and then left the room.

Nori sighed as she gently stroked Taro's dark brown hair. "Did it hurt a lot, Taro-kun?" She faintly heard her second cousin say a jutsu and her daughter crying.

"At least Noriko's seal is on her shoulder." Nori looked the baby boy's neck. "Yours must've been really painful. Oh well, the more painful, the stronger it will be."

"Nori," Takako came into the room, Noriko sniffing in her arms. "You do know that Noriko has to live here in Konohagakure. That means you have stay here with her. You can't go back to Iwagakure." Nori closed her eyes.

"I know. It was quite stupid to accept that damn mission when I was eight months pregnant. I should've listened to Tsuchikage-sama." Takako sighed as she put both Taro and Noriko into a crib. She then put a hand on Nori's shoulder.

"I've decided to leave Taro here with you two. Maybe Noriko needs him more than I do."

_~Five years later: Market Street~_

A five-year old Noriko Kādoyūzā was walking in Market Street of Konoha with her right hand occupied by her six-year old third cousin's, Taro Kādoyūzā. Her mother was currently pushing a stroller with a one-year old baby girl in it. They were currently shopping.

A dark-auburn haired man with hazel eyes was walking besides Nori, holding her hand with a gold wedding ring on his left. Nori had a matching one also.

Once Nori became an official Konoha resident, the best thing to do next was to find a man to help her with the two children she had to care for. She met _him_ when Noriko was one, at the Mission Assignment Desk. She was there when he requested a mission. They went on an A-rank mission together, which was to guard a VIP. From there, Nori fell in love with the dark-haired Jōnin named Nobu Itō. (1) Within two years, they wed and a year after, she bore him a baby girl named Nobuko.

Noriko sighed as she walked with her mother. She wore a purple mid-thigh skirt with mesh armor covering her legs with brown sandals (the ones seen in _Naruto _mind you). She had a brown shirt with her left sleeve missing. She had straight waist-length light brown hair.

"Look at that boy over there." Noriko whispered to Taro as she looked at a random brown haired boy; imaginary hearts appeared in her eyes that only her mother and Taro can see. Taro rolled his eyes. "_What is it with her finding eye candies everywhere?" _He thought.

Suddenly, a blond boy ran past them, crying. Noriko looked at him with concern.

"Mommy, why is that boy crying?" Noriko pointed to the blond boy about the same age as her. Before her mother can say anything, Noriko broke free from Taro's grip and ran towards the boy.

"Excuse me, why are you sad?!" Noriko asked the boy as she was running after him. The boy wiped his tears away, stopped and looked at Noriko, dumbfounded.

"I'm Noriko Kādoyūzā. What's yours?" Noriko gave him a warm smile and took her hand out to shake his.

"Oh, no, is that the boy…?" Nori thought out loud. Before Taro or Nobu could ask what was wrong, the young woman told her husband to stay with Nobuko and Taro, and then ran towards Noriko.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki." He said. He couldn't believe someone was actually talking to him kindly, not running way, looking at him harshly or calling him a monster. He was about to shake her hand when a brown and red flash picked up Noriko. Naruto's eyes widened.

"Noriko Kādoyūzā, don't _ever_ speak to that boy again!" Nori scolded Noriko. "But mommy…" Noriko tried to tell her mother that he was a nice boy, but she wouldn't listen.

"But nothing, we're now leaving." Nori grabbed both Taro and Noriko's hands and stalked off with Nobu and Nobuko following.

_~Two years later: The academy~_

A seven-year old Noriko was now in front of the academy with her hands gripping Taro's tightly with nervousness. "C'mon, I'll show you around." Taro said, going inside.

She looked around, kids were everywhere! She sighed; she wasn't really the kind that can easily make friends. She eyed a similar blond boy.

"Remember what your mom said, Noriko-chan." Taro said, noticing that she looked at Naruto. She nodded.

After about a few minutes, Taro led her to her classroom, whispering, "Don't make the wrong kind of friends." He left to the exit, leaving her alone. She already missed the comfort of her third cousin's hand.

"I'm going to sit next to Sasuke-kun!"

"No, I will!"

"No, I'm going to!"

"Shut it, Billboard Brow!"

She noticed almost every girl was fighting over a certain seat next to a boy who was said to be a boy named Sasuke, even though they were plenty more. She wanted to see what caused them to be so fussy over a simple seat.

She looked and saw a rather handsome dark blue spiky haired boy with a bored expression on his face. It appeared that he was an Uchiha, since he had the Uchiha symbol was on the back of his dark blue shirt. The hearts returned to her eyes.

Noriko didn't to get to the bad side of all the girls by sitting next to the good-looking Sasuke Uchiha, so she slumped herself into left aisle seat in the second big desk in the middle of the room. She looked on the left next to her and saw Naruto Uzumaki.

She immediately turned her head right. Noriko was now face to face with a black haired boy, who was frowning at her.

"Why are you sitting in my seat?" He snarled as he pointed at the chair she was sitting on. Noriko frowned. "If it's you're seat, why not sit in it so other people will know it's your seat." She snorted ever so smartly, as if you she was mocking him.

He was about to snap at her when he noticed a pack of cards in one of the many pockets of her dress. "Are these cards, you loser?" Before she could answer, he snatched the pack from the pocket.

"You think you can make friends by playing cards with them? Wow, you're _defiantly _are a loser." He scoffed. He threw the cards in the air, making them scatter.

Noriko scowled. She grabbed a number one spades card that was floating down and slapped him with it. Almost every boy in the class started laughing, until they notice the boy howling in pain.

He had his hand on his bloody cheek, crying in pain. Everyone was now just staring in shock; even Sasuke had his eyebrow raised.

"I recommend you find someone to treat that." Noriko stated calmly. She picked up the same spades card, cut her hand and got another card. It was a number two clubs card and she placed it on her cut, and it healed. "Because I'm not going to,"

He ran out the room. Iruka was coming in when the boy ran out. He noticed him clutching his cheek, but didn't notice it was bleeding.

"What was that about?" Iruka asked. "It was that girl, Iruka-sensei, the one wearing the purple dress!" A boy began to screech. Noriko sighed.

"Really, what happened?" Iruka said. "She has a pack of weird cards and she cut Katsuo's cheek with them." Iruka walked towards Noriko's seat.

"Mind telling me your name?" Iruka told her. "I'm Noriko Kādoyūzā, sensei." She answered softly. Iruka glanced at the scattered cards on the floor.

"Tell me what happened."

"Katsuo or whatever was making fun of me and he took my cards and threw them in the air. I got the spades card and cut his cheek with it." Noriko explained, with a slight hint of guilt.

"I see. Your clan uses cards as weapons, am I correct?" Noriko nodded.

"I'm going to check on the kid. You kids behave." Iruka walked out of the room. Everybody continued to stare at the brown haired girl.

"What are you looking at?" Noriko snapped at her classmates, going on her knees to pick up the cards the boy threw. Suddenly, another person began to help her.

She looked and saw Naruto actually helping her. A small blush appeared on her cheeks, which she quickly discarded, not wanting to like a boy her mother forbidden her to talk to.

"I don't need help, Naruto." She said as nice as possible, not wanting to hurt Naruto's feelings. "You have a lot of cards, I think it would be hard collecting them all—wait, how do you my name?" Naruto tilted his head a bit, confused.

Noriko blushed again, sighing as she remembered how she first met him. "I met you two years ago." She replied simply, a bit sad that he didn't remember her.

"Two years ago? I don't remember." He gave her a small stack of cards he picked up and gave it to her. "Thanks."

"Why don't you have jack cards? I haven't seen queen or king cards either… plus I noticed the numbers are only up to five." Naruto questioned the light brown-haired girl. "I'm not ready for those cards yet." Noriko sighed. Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"I've been curious, how do these cards work?" Naruto asked while picking up a spades card with hesitation, remembering how bad the card had cut the boy's cheek. Noriko giggled at him, "Don't worry. My clan uses a special chakra to activate the cards."

"Each of them has different powers, right?"

"Yup," Noriko responded. She was actually a good time with him. Suddenly, Taro's voice entered her mind, "_Remember what your mom said, Noriko-chan._"

She scowled. Why did her mother have such a big problem with him? He was an extremely nice boy. I don't know why anyone wouldn't like him.

"Here, I'll show you." Noriko laid out a spades, hearts, clubs, and a diamonds card. "The spades cuts, you knew that already since I cut that boy's cheek." She cut her hand again, making it bleed.

"The hearts card heals. It can only heal cuts and really light injuries, though, not heavy injuries. So, I'm not technically a medical-nin. Unless if I work on concentrating the chakra." She placed the hearts card on her cut. After about a few seconds, Noriko took it away and the cut was fully healed. Naruto watched in fascination.

"The diamonds one moves objects. It's very helpful when a something heavy and big is blocking your path during a mission." To show Naruto the card's power, she walked over to her desk and touched it with a number two diamonds card. Noriko easily picked it up.

Noriko noticed some other people were watching. She slightly blushed at the sudden attention. "The clubs card paralyzes people for few seconds, it also leaves a black mist. It comes in handy when you need to escape. You have to absorb the chakra out if you just want to paralyze." Noriko picked up the hearts card.

"I would show you demonstration, but I'd rather not." With that, Noriko put the rest of her cards in the pouch on her dress and walked back to her seat.

"Wow, I never knew anyone can have that power." Naruto said in slight awe, sitting in his seat also. "_You still haven't seen anything._" Noriko thought as she clutched her right shoulder.

"Noriko Kādoyūzā, may you come with me for a moment?" Noriko's head turned to door where Iruka was standing. Besides him was the boy whose cheek Noriko cut earlier.

Noriko gulped a bit as she nodded and walked towards them. An uneasy feeling filled her stomach. "_Calm down, it's not so bad._" She thought.

"Look, I'm sorry I cut your cheek." Noriko blurted out sincerely, bowing. "It's not like you to bow, Noriko-chan." Taro suddenly appeared behind Iruka. "_Why must these things happen to me?_" Noriko thought irritably.

Noriko noticed that the black-haired boy was slightly shivering at the sight of her. He was obviously scared of her. She got an unusual pleasure in her mind.

"T-Taro-kun, what are you doing here?" Noriko stuttered a bit. He gave a smile at his younger third cousin, "You got in trouble, so they made me come here to listen to your punishment. To check if it's too light or severe."

Iruka nodded at Taro and then turned to Noriko, "Noriko, you're punishment is that you have to make a new swing on the tree in front. It's getting old now. I'll give you the things you'll need at the end of the day. No kunai knives, okay?" Noriko nodded. Iruka walked to the front of the classroom.

Before Noriko can escape to her seat, Taro grabbed her shoulder. "No cards either, Noriko-chan. I'll be watching you." Noriko huffed as she went to her seat.

"That's not so bad of a punishment; at least you didn't have to clean the Hokage Monument!" Naruto chuckled as quietly as possible when she told him what happened. Noriko giggled with him. "What did you do?"

"I painted the hokage's' faces." Noriko stared at him for a while, and then resisted bursting out laughing. Bad enough she had to stay after school, she couldn't afford any more punishments.

"Okay, it's recess time so you kids may leave." Iruka announced as the students cheered and went out the door. Noriko and Naruto followed.

_~Recess~_

"Noriko, this is Shikamaru Nara, Kiba Inuzuka, and Chōji Akimichi." Naruto introduced. Little did they know, the invisible hearts returned in Noriko's eyes.

"I'm Noriko Kādoyūzā, nice to meet you." She warmly smiled. "You're the girl who cut Katsuo's cheek earlier, right?" Kiba asked. Noriko nodded.

"He ain't so victorious anymore, huh?" Kiba joked, causing Noriko to giggle*. "It's about time someone taught that kid a lesson." Everybody nodded in agreement.

"You want to play with us today and maybe again after school at the park?" Chōji said. "I would love to, but I can't. I need to fix the swing on the tree after school. It's my punishment for cutting Katsuo's cheek."

"Why can't you just skip it? That's we do all the time." Kiba suggested. "I don't know, my third cousin will be there, and he's really hard to get past…"

"Shikamaru can think of a plan. He's really smart." Naruto insisted. "What about your clubs card?" Noriko's eyes widened. Was he really suggesting on using the clubs card on Taro?

"It depends," Shikamaru said, "what does your clubs card do?" Noriko gave him the clubs card. "It paralyzes people for a few seconds, sometimes even longer, depending on how high the number is and how much special chakra you put in." Noriko explained.

"Hmm…" Shikamaru sighed, closing his eyes for moment. "Your punishment is to fix the swing, right?" Noriko nodded for the fifth time that day. "Okay, here's what you do…"

_~The end of the day: The tree~_

"Here are your tools, Noriko." Iruka said as he put some wood, rope, a three-step ladder and a small saw on the ground. "Your cousin will be watching you." He went back to the school.

Noriko picked up the saw and slowly began saw the wood back and forth. She felt Taro watching her, sending a shiver down Noriko's spine. "Ow!" Noriko suddenly hissed in pain. "Noriko-chan, what's the matter?" He walked over to her.

"Aha!" Noriko swung into Taro's direction, hitting him with a number two clubs card square in the chest. He was absolutely still. Noriko smiled in victory as she jumped slightly in the air and threw the card at the ground, causing a black mist to surround them.

"Bye, Taro-kun!" She laughed as she left the place, towards the playground.

"Hey guys!" Noriko exclaimed at the four as she ran into the playground. "Hey Noriko, the plan worked?" Naruto greeted. "Yup, Taro-kun completely fell for it and will be still for a while." Noriko giggled, not showing the guilt she had inside.

"C'mon Noriko, let's play ninja!" Kiba cheered in excitement. Noriko nodded happily as she played with four boys.

_~After about an hour later~_

"Chōji, Shikamaru, Kiba!" The five heads turned and saw three adults heading their way. "I guess it's time to leave, bye everyone!" Kiba said as he ran towards his mother. Shikamaru and Chōji did the same.

"Don't worry, Naruto, I'll stay." Noriko smiled at Naruto when she saw his face sadden. "Noriko!" Noriko's body felt like it was paralyzed by a clubs card. It was Taro and he sounded as angry as ever.

"T-Taro-kun, how are you doing this fine afternoon?" Noriko nervously greeted with a false smile. Taro glared at both Naruto and Noriko and grabbed Noriko's wrist. "We're leaving now, Noriko-chan."

"B-but…!" Taro carried her bridal style and got out something from his pocket. He quickly hit Noriko's shoulder with it and she froze. "Pay back." He smirked, holding up a number two clubs card as he walked away. He quickly absorbed his chakra out of the card before it exploded with the black mist. Noriko's shouts of "Let go of me!" were completely ignored.

Naruto's face saddened once again. He was alone…

_~The Kādoyūzā's house~_

"YOU DID WHAT?!" Nori screamed at Noriko, with Nobu looking sternly at Noriko. "Not only did you paralyze your cousin and skipped a punishment, but you became friends with that Uzumaki boy! That boy is dangerous, Noriko!"

"No, he is not! Naruto's a nice boy! He would never hurt anyone!" Noriko growled. Nori's eye twitched. "You don't know anything about him, Noriko!"

Noriko stormed out of the room, an angry look pasted on her face. What did her mother know about Naruto that she didn't? Sure, she just met him officially today, but she could tell that he was one of the nicest people she ever met. How could he be dangerous?

Noriko slammed her bedroom door as hard as she can. The walls shook a bit. Noriko put on her striped purple pajama shirt (she never wears pants to sleep, instead she wears her lavender underwear, much to the dismay of Taro and Nobu), discarding her purple dress, mesh armor and blue shinobi sandals. She jumped into bed and pulled the covers over her.

She scowled in annoyance when she looked at the clock. It was only 7:30 P.M.

She sighed as she got out of bed and put back on her dress without her mesh armor. She grabbed the pack of cards and put them in her pockets as she walked towards the door. She was going to train in the backyard.

Noriko past Taro without looking at him in the hall on the way to the back door, Taro eyed her slightly. She scoffed as she continued to walk towards backyard. Normally she would train with Taro, but today she would train alone.

Noriko threw her spades card at an aiming target. It hit about an inch below the bulls-eye. She scowled as she threw another one, it was slightly closer, but still didn't hit the bulls-eye. "_No leaving until I hit that bulls-eye!_" she thought to herself.

She continued to throw her spades cards, until she was up to the last one. Closing her eyes, she threw it. She slowly opened her eyes and smiled. "Bulls-eye!" she exclaimed as she ran towards the target and grabbed all of the spades cards.

She put them in her pockets with the other cards and ran towards the back door, only to see Taro blocking it. "Excuse me; I need to get in, _Taro_." She purposely didn't add "kun" at the end of his name. Deep inside, it hurt him.

"You really need to stop hanging around that Uzumaki boy, Noriko-chan. It's only gonna cause you trouble." Taro stated. Noriko began to glare at him quite furiously.

"Leave me alone. And stop calling him Uzumaki boy, his name is Naruto."Noriko snarled harshly as she shoved him roughly out of the way, making Taro slightly surprised. She stalked off to her room, leaving Taro.

"Damn, what happened to the more serious Noriko-chan?" Taro sighed to himself quietly, rubbing his right temple with his two fingers. "If only she knew…"

_**(1): I may want to make a one-shot on how they met and how their relationship developed…**_

_**WOW, what a really long prologue, huh? The ending of this chapter was a bit crappy in my opinion. I really hope that all of chapters will be this long. I hope you guys enjoyed! Well, I guess it's time to say bye! :)**_

**xAnimeLoverx3 **


End file.
